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This semester, there was an unprecedented increase in applications for financial aid. Last fall, 11,609 students applied for financial aid at Austin Community College, compared to this fall’s, 17,470 applicants. This is a 50 percent increase.
“We’ve had to work weekends, and we’ve had to definitely alter schedules to compensate for additional student body,” Financial Aid Supervisor Jason Briseno said.
There is indeed a larger student body, with over 40,000 students enrolled this semester in credit classes at ACC. Of all the students that applied for aid, 51 percent more students than last year were granted aid as of Aug. 25. ACC awarded 9,990 students aid this year, compared to last year’s 6,611.
One explanation for this recorded enrollment and record application for aid could be the state of the economy and rising levels of unemployment.
“It’s a well known fact that college enrollment goes up during economic downturns. People feel they have to improve their education and skills to compete in a tough job market. And when there are layoffs, people use that time to attend school,” Counselor Jorge Lynch said.
Briseno agrees with Lynch. He also mentioned that the return of Iraq veterans who are coming home to a competitive job market could also be adding to the growth the college is experiencing.
“The increase of financial aid applicants definitely had to be because of the economy. People that used to be able to afford their own tuition can no longer afford their tuitions, and people that used to rely on their parents no longer can rely on their parents because their parents can’t afford it anymore,” Briseno said.
Lynch has been teaching at ACC for over 12 years and counseling for more than two years. He has talked to many students about financial aid. Some students he spoke to complained about not receiving adequate notification of the payment deadlines. Not knowing this affected how and when they were dropped from their classes.
Lynch said that although it is ultimately the student’s responsibility to know drop dates, increased communication between the cashier’s office and the students could not hurt.
“When I was in UT Grad School, I had to attend a mandatory financial aid orientation that reviewed polices and procedures. Maybe ACC can benefit from a financial aid orientation as well,” Lynch said.
“If you failed to pay on time, that is not a sufficient reason to be reinstated, but I offer solutions,” said Davis.
One of the solutions Davis stated was to look for another class in a later session. After the initial 16-week session there are eight and 12-week semesters students may enroll in if they offer classes on their degree plan.
“Students have the sense that I’m just being arbitrary and that I’m not following rules and regulations, but the reasons this department is like this is that we want to be fair and treat everyone equally,” said Davis.
Another ACC office that is aware of the increase in enrolled students as well as the increase in financial aid applicants is the office of Support Services and Student Success Systems.
The Vice President of Support Services and Student Success Systems, Kathleen Christensen used different methods to handle the increase from 35,798 credit students last fall to this year’s 40,248. She acknowledged some students getting dropped for missing payment deadlines.
“We felt as though the information was adequate, but given what the students were saying, we are going to look into more and better ways to inform students on when their payments were due,” said Christensen.
Christensen is not the only one concerned about the students dropped this year. The Financial Aid office is developing ways to inform students about deadlines too.
“We’ve been trying different things all four years I’ve been here. I think this year we’re really going to impact this; we’re bringing in a specialist to review financial aid literacy, and getting the word out to students that if you apply early you have few worries,” said Briseno.
The Director of Financial Aid, Terry Bazan shed some light on other contributing factors for why the Financial Aid office was especially taxed this fall semester.
“Summer increase backed up processing for fall and spring, so you see what I’m saying? Dominoes for the increase of summer onto the fall,” said Bazan
In regards to the many students who were upset about not receiving their funds from Financial Aid, she stated that if students had applied in time, the funds were there.
“The issue we have found is that students aren’t reading the literature we send them when we award them loans. Minor details. It wasn’t an ACC error. I’ve talked to irate students and irate parents where students are crying saying ‘Oh I didn’t read the letter.’ There’s only so much we can do and the students have to take responsibility,” said Bazan.
What Bazan refers to is the award letter that comes from Financial Aid after a student has been approved for loans and Pell Grants. After students receive this letter in the mail, there is a Web site where they need to go to and approve their loans online. This is called activating their loans. Even if awarded the money, if students don’t go online to activate their loans, they will not receive funds.
“Believe it or not, even today we ran a list and there are 96 students that haven’t activated their loans or paid their tuition, and we’re like do they want it or do they not want it?
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